Pretty much all the gold shares are lagging (if you look at the XAU and HUI indexes) Couple comments. ANG has its 2 largest producing areas (in order) of SA and Ghana. Ghana is pretty mining friendly but SA scares off international investors toward mining with the whole uncertain political outlook (nationalisation debates high mining taxes) Then cost of business here is high (labour and electricity - never mind the reliability) So thats the negative. That said I think the market is pricing gold stocks (worldwide, not just SA) as if the current gold price is temporary and is going to retreat down towards 1000. So gold mining stocks would be a longer term play if thats your thing. Once these companies post a few quarters of good earnings (they have had a couple) We'll see the investment community start to toss money in the mining direction. But mining is a risky costly business and not for everyone. It may have been simon who posted a comment a couple years back that went along the lines of "Definition of a mine. A hole in the ground with a liar on top" - Simon if it wasnt you, no offense meant. - P

Pretty much all the gold shares are lagging (if you look at the XAU and HUI indexes) Couple comments. ANG has its 2 largest producing areas (in order) of SA and Ghana. Ghana is pretty mining friendly but SA scares off international investors toward mining with the whole uncertain political outlook (nationalisation debates high mining taxes) Then cost of business here is high (labour and electricity - never mind the reliability) So thats the negative. That said I think the market is pricing gold stocks (worldwide, not just SA) as if the current gold price is temporary and is going to retreat down towards 1000. So gold mining stocks would be a longer term play if thats your thing. Once these companies post a few quarters of good earnings (they have had a couple) We'll see the investment community start to toss money in the mining direction. But mining is a risky costly business and not for everyone. It may have been simon who posted a comment a couple years back that went along the lines of "Definition of a mine. A hole in the ground with a liar on top" - Simon if it wasnt you, no offense meant. - P